1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer-assisted method for making a presentation drawn from a plurality of visual media. More particularly, this invention pertains to such a method that permits user/machine interaction in the design and programming of a multi-media presentation and user/machine/audience interaction in its delivery.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The presentation of information is an essential educational and persuasive function of commerce. The prepared or formal narrated audio-visual presentation is a ubiquitous adjunct of modern-day sales of both goods and services and the development of this hybrid of technology and psychology continues unabated, seeking and finding new applications on a more or less continual basis.
Generally, audio-visual presentations have been limited to text and images; that is, stills, graphs and the like. This is in recognition of the fact that some information is mote usefully presented in at least a partially visual manner. Systems for making such presentations include the overhead projector, the television monitor, the slide projector and related technologies.
A primary use of audio-visual information presentation is advocacy. While the use of visual media can provide dramatic effects, command of the viewer""s attention is a constant preoccupation of a presenter. For this reason, audio-visual presentations should be as unencumbered as possible with technology-imposed pauses or xe2x80x9cbreaksxe2x80x9d that can cause a viewer to become fatigued thereby limiting his attention span. Also, even a xe2x80x9csmoothxe2x80x9d presentation, if poorly designed, may lose the audience""s attention through internal aesthetic illogic and/or incompatibility with the dynamic xe2x80x9cmoodxe2x80x9d of the audience. Thus, in both the creation and delivery of an effective presentation, the speaker or advocate should possess maximum flexibility of action. Computer-assisted systems frequently provide additional tools but fail to permit the user to address important audience psychology issues.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a computer-assisted method and associated apparatus for designing and displaying a multi-media visual presentation that provides the user with the flexibility to review throughout both processes so that the eventual presentation is capable of capturing and holding the audience""s attention.
It is another object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus that achieves the preceding object by interactive techniques.
It is yet another object of this invention to achieve the above-listed object by means of a computerized scheme that permits the amplification editing of both presentation frames and script throughout.
The preceding and other objects are achieved by the invention which provides, in a first aspect, a method for presenting a multi-media plurality of visual elements. The method is begun by assigning a unique index to each of the elements and loading each element by such index into a predetermined input device. The input devices are addressed so that selected elements are displayed. A select/reject decision is then made with respect to the displayed elements and the process is repeated until a frame comprising at least one visual element is completed. The frame is then stored in a script buffer and the process is repeated until a plurality of frames constituting a presentation is accumulated in the buffer.
A predetermined frame is then selected and displayed in a selected format. This process is repeated until the presentation is finished.
In a second aspect, the invention provides apparatus for presenting a multi-media plurality of visual elements. Such apparatus includes means for assigning a unique index to each of the elements. A plurality of input devices is provided as is means for loading each of the elements into preselected ones of the input devices.
Means are provided for addressing the input devices so that selected elements are recalled and for displaying the recalled elements. Means are additionally provided for making a select/reject decision with respect to each of the displayed elements so that at least one frame comprising a plurality of elements is formed.
Means are additionally provided for storing the frames and for recalling predetermined ones thereof. Finally, means are provided for displaying the frames in a preselected format.
The foregoing and other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the detailed description that follows. Such description is accompanied and illustrated by a set of drawing figures. Numerals of the drawings, corresponding to those of the written description, point to the features of the invention. Like numerals refer to like features throughout both the written description and the drawing figures.